Week 6

Back on the Grind Stone

Modelling is love modelling is life

3DS Max is the main tool in my software belt as a 3D modeller and my relationship with this software has strengthened as the course has gone on. But none could have anticipated the struggles of low poly bat wings.

The Model

Nevertheless I have prevailed and me and Max have created my turret and it looks just like the silhouette, complete with cage pivot. I'm really happy with how the pivot translated into 3D.

As it was modelled I felt it was time to test my gun in Unreal 4; in hindsight I should have had it unwrapped but I was too excited. This showed me that my favourite part, the caged pivot, looks odd as a pivot when the gun moves. (Not to mention the 30 times I tried importing the mesh only to have the gun parts move in 3 different directions.)

My Topology

My attempts to make it look more suitable have failed, but I kinda like it looking off. The gun itself is a little weird and wonderful and maybe the insane pivot is just an aspect of that.

The best part of all this is the blueprint learning that has occurred through trial and error. It may not be an opinion shared but trial and error makes me clever. Every project I have a struggle with I learn and can apply so much more for my next assignment. 

Week 5

Individual Projects Begin

Sentry Guns, Iteration for the Nation 

A new project begins, the sentry turret. This time our brief is to design, model and transfer to engine a sentry gun. The blueprints and animation is set up. All we need to do is import and replace... or so we thought. (Freddy and the pivots from hell is another story).

We began by making a good old fashioned pinboard: http://uk.pinterest.com/cantondmuga/gunned-down/

Oh Pintrest the way you make my research easy and accessible makes my heart skip. My chosen theme was pastel goth and diesel punk. My idea was to create a diesel punk silhouette, then theme and mix in the pastel elements. 

From here we created reference boards and from these our first silhouettes. My first silhouettes were made from a bash kit created from my mood board, which was really good fun and a technique I hadn't used before. I could have iterated until the cows came home nothing was stopping me. However when I got to 50 reason stopped me, it was time for feedback

From the favorite designs of each person I asked, I produced tonal outcomes and started to develop them into something more pastel goth. Needless to say, not much time was spent on this after all those first silhouettes. At least i'm happy with the sheet and feel a lean towards which is the strongest design. Before I knew it we were knee deep in the turret project and I was on to colour sheets.

Tonal Studies, how will these be 3D

Colour Sheet

Final Design, and I'm very excited 

Next time on Freddy does game art, 3DS max and the day of the round shapes.

Week 4

The Film Room Post Mortem part 2

Once we got the ok, it was time to go into overdrive, turn it up to 11 and burn some midnight oil. Although if I was to redo this project I would have started once we had a film chosen and probably taken advice from tutors rather than relied on the dragons den method we were given, as we spent far too long deciding and not enough time working.

But then you never know what issues a project will throw at you, learning is a mixture of failing and picking up the usable pieces for next time and successes where you find a working method and roll with it.

Organisation would be key in this project, something we didn’t seem to realise until week 2. However once it was introduced we used many methods of keeping track of each other, our work and the group internal deadlines.

We used methods like: mood boarding the scene for assets, colour pallets, the waterfall timetable and an editable schedule to help us all add in parts that we missed and crack the whip on each other.

Now it was time to concept for my assets. A lot of them were front on or difficult to see in the view of the tent we chose. So for the trophies, the part I couldn’t see as well, I did the most iteration. In the end I used line orthographics to obtain the shape I wanted. I think my concepts are poor and if I had gone back I would have started them earlier so I had more time on them.

orthographics

Because of my concepts being poor, I decided to use the block mesh we had made, to create simple, visual, orthographics. These were used for presenting and helping understand the paper models proportions, without having too much topology in the way of the asset you are trying to measure.

From concept to model, the time to use 3DS Max had come. And I was ready. Although I’m happy with my models, there are parts looking back that I would change to fit the tent better that are a little off in engine. The candle holder for instance is correct in max, but in engine the camera used stretches the model too wide. Also because of my working view the globes holder is both too wide and the turner is too far down the holder.

Once I had unwrapped and textured it was a little too late to fix this because it was lit and set up in engine ready for presentation. There will always be an argument for if I had a bit more time. However I really feel that if I had of used the time I had differently, spent more time on concepting and getting feedback, then these where issues that could have been ironed out of our scene.

Models in engine

using masks for emissives

Complicated textures

Texturing was reasonably simple, but I was using a new map, an emissive map, which is a map that masks out the non-glowing parts of the texture so only the correct parts glow. This was simple but plugging it in, getting it to look right was another matter.

Introducing Freddy to complicated texture blueprints in engine was also not a simple task, but we got through and I now understand a lot more about PBR.

Least we forget the paper model, a hallowed construct of paper and love. This was something that we put a lot of effort into, although not much time and it somehow came out the other side looking pretty good.

I love it because it’s cute and it was a lot of fun to do together. However It was really successful too, it matches the scene well and we faced similar camera issues with the physical model as we did with the engine one. Because of the focal point of the globe, the lens wants to focus on it or the back, and not both. 

To create the photo of our model I took it on my DSLR, so I could fiddle around with differential depth and then composited two successful shots into one.

Overall I’m chuffed about how well we worked as a group, I’ve learned an incredible amount about engine, group work and most importantly I’ve taken on all these mistakes and learnt from them. I may have changed parts with time, I may have not produced my best work ever but I learned so much and I’m at uni to learn.

There is no failure in mistakes, failure is not learning from them.

Week 3

The Film Room Post Mortem part 1

Now the Project is over, I can present the film room project, a deadly viper assassination squad production.

Our group started by looking into films and rooms we liked, many were colourful, high contrast and busy rooms. We soon realised most would be very challenging.
We created a mood board of the rooms we liked, the rooms we thought were reasonable and the films that had good art direction for us to study.

However it became clear after our first pitch that the rooms we had chosen may have been too busy and too complicated for the short deadline we had.

Our very first moodboard

My revisited moodboard

Our next pitch was in 1 week so we had to get working quickly to find the room that would be colourful, have good lighting and also be simple enough to model in just over 2 weeks!
To get the ball rolling I made the above mood board of films and rooms I liked. I then set off the rest of my group to do the same and cracked the whip so we could decide and get some concepts and white boxing done for our second pitch.

Speed runner

Broken Embraces

My paintovers

We all did over-paints of scenes to decide which were the most effective without people and which still had really good composition after removing actors.

I started with tonal studies to find the scenes with the best lighting and composition, it really helped find the rooms that were boring without colour.

I really like the staircase but we all decided the tent was the most visually appealing to all of the team. 

This was our final mood-board for our second pitch, it shows the back-up rooms including our final choice, the tent from The Royal Tennebaums.

Week 2

The Studies Continue

The Deadly Assassination Squad Presents 

As a group we decided to keep the team name from the Kill Bill pitch, I decided it take this further.

The group project on the .... tent scene is in full swing. We're mostly on track for our own deadlines and everyone is still enjoying the work. I'm more behind than the others, as I've had some extra things to sort out this week. I still feel motivated and like everything is possible. All systems go as they say.

Unfortunately my daily painting efforts have been thwarted by the dragon that is 3DS Max, although my understanding of Max has increased ten fold and I'm really enjoying modeling, I just don't have the time to do both. This has lead to the rise of Pintrest and the cool shit Wednesdays board. 

Due to not having the painting time, I've started a Pintrest board based on our cool shit Wednesdays talks on the course. I've been pinning away all the fashion, nature and cool shit I've found and then using it as reference for painting at the weekend. This week's attempt was based on totems, native Americans and shamans to create a quirky and more original character concept.

I'm happy with it for a 2hr study and I hope to make this a twice a week investment of time rather than the daily I was able to do before.


Here's to the group work living long and prospering.
Here's to Cool Shit Wednesdays.

Week 1

Farewells and Fresh starts

Grouping together

After a long summer of merriment and seeing family I'm back in Leicester continuing my journey that is Game Art. My first week had been such a mixed affair with the final farewell of first year and news that diffuse and specular maps have been superseded by albedo, metalness and roughness. I'm happy to see new changes and learn about how the industry adapts. I feel it will make me more capable of adapting in industry when these changes roll around again because I have dealt with them while still learning.

Here's to fresh starts, I've even set myself a daily digital painting challenge(even if it's only an hour a day). Seeing the improvement in my visual studies is really motivating as I'm becoming more of an artist by the day.


Not to mention albedo maps don't need shadows baking in, which is great, because I didn't understand that part very well anyway. However that is not to say I haven't had a little struggle getting my head around U4 and the new material maps. Hopefully as the next few weeks go by with a little practice and a little 3rd year nudge of help I'll have the new system cracked.

My first week's work has been interesting, fun and engaging but mostly interesting. I've had two group projects this past week; as my main aspiration is to become an art director I have tried to enthuse, motivate and get the best work out of my colleagues as possible. 

Group work

PBR is love PBR is life

I think my 3D group work could have been more organised but my peers looked to me for advice on what style, scale and job they should do. I noticed they asked me to check things for them even though I didn't ask to have things to go through me. I think they felt comfortable with me taking the reins and organizing our work. I'm really encouraged by this because it means that I'm already on my way to learning the key skills needed to manage a team.

I think it's really important as a team leader to not be over aggressive with your methods; people should be able to bounce ideas off of each other and feel like they can contribute to the project. The best way of leading isn't always to get on people's cases but to be passive to the work flow of an artist, encourage the best work out of them as a working group, rather than limiting them to your own thoughts.

This more passive leadership is happening with my visual studies film still group work. There are strong characters in my group (including myself) with all these great ideas already. There is little point in narrowing their ideas with what I think, ultimately that could take out some of the passion for the project. Instead we have lots of bounce meetings where everyone gets to pitch their ideas and I really feel our current idea is so much stronger for this.

Revised Moodboard

At first we had thought about Utopia or Kill Bill. Everyone was happy with these but after a talk with the lecturers, we've kept looking and we've gone for the tent from The Royal Tenenbaums. 

My over paint of our scene

As you can see it's quirky, simple, quaint, full of colour and interesting lighting.


Here's for another great year.
Here's to farewells and fresh starts!

History Part 4 Personal Enquiry

Heroes And Heroines

Before I begin I feel I should explain what my aim is and explain what I'm looking into. In no way, shape or form do I think that the media industry is inherently trying to portray either gender badly or give people issues about how they are on purpose. I think people don't always address and investigate both sides of sexism and it's important to do so, otherwise we still have double standards. This is why I have chosen to look into sexism in video games. The point of this research was to look into the current and historical standards and ideals of the game industry and how this could be changing for the better, or what solutions could be implemented.

So let's begin with the basics of what defines a trope, what double standards are to explore what sexism in media really is. A trope is any recurring character, rhetorical device, satirical device, or cliché in creative works. There are many labelled types of tropes, such as straw feminist, and people view them in different levels of seriousness. Personally many tropes applied to women are pretty cliché and most audiences are aware that what they are watching is detached from reality... However male tropes are more subtle. Tropes are often the same sort of thing as an archetype.

A double standard is a set of rules or morals that is true for a group of people but different for another. This often occurs across genders. 

Let's start with the ladies and the most common examples of a frequent trope. Princess Peach from Nintendo's Mario, is a classic character and example of the damsel in distress. From concept to computer the Princess has always been kidnapped and rescued. Interestingly her design hasn't stayed the same throughout, starting life as an 8 bit red head in white, while currently she lives as a yellow maiden in frills and pink.

http://katyannjenkins95.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/ms4-timeline-evolution-of-female-role.html

Clearly this isn't all of Peaches appearances over the years but it gives a good idea of how her design has changed to fit social schemers over the years.

For the most part the design is reasonable but very simple and clearly aimed at a younger audience. All the information we are getting visually is who the character is, female, royal, likely young and attractive. Which in itself isn't that bad but when it comes to Super Princess Peach for the Nintendo DS and her emotions being the source of her powers, one of which being her crying to overcome things, you start to question things more. 

The main issue with the damsel in distress is as a plot line it works well in games. It's extremely common to have the member of the opposite sex as what the character is seeking throughout the game and it's also common to win the game once the love interest has been rescued. If you replace the love interest with something else, even an object like let's say a large diamond, would the plot change much for the game? If Mario was getting back the kingdoms diamond which powers the mushroom kingdom and so the king said please everyone try and save us, would it change that much? I don't think so and that's what's really sad about the damsel trope, it's an easy option rather than more complex plots. Surely given modern graphics and cinematic games that have become so popular, it's disappointing to see such reliable but boring plots.

I personally believe Anita Sarkeesian is too critical and doesn't offer both sides of the story, however she has done a lot of very good research in the area of video games and tropes. There are lots of tropes out there and many are covered by Anita Sarkeesian.

http://clickamericana.com/media/advertisements/say-hello-to-ms-pac-man-1982-1983

Next we come on to another trope used mostly in video games but this time to identify. A lot of female versions of male characters have very few design changes so you can see it's the same thing but to show it's a female character it has a bow or it's pink or wears red lipstick and sometimes all three. For now we'll refer to it as the Ms Male trope. Let's start with a well know example of Pac-man, and his counter part Ms. Pac-man.

http://lawnmowerman.rotheblog.com/

                                         As you can see the only difference between the sprites is red lipstick a red bow and a beauty mark. In itself this is harmless and even good in some examples, however in a game like Pac-man where really gender was irrelevant why create a Ms. Pac-man? Well obviously this was a re-boot of Pac-man that needed to sell for more than just the 'four new mazes, added bonus fruit symbols that float freely through the maze, two new side exists that give four chances for getaway, and a unique cartoon series', as stated on the previous poster for the game. With all those changes it's almost a new game when you change the players character into a girl too. For the most part this was successful, after all people loved Pac-man and Ms. Pac-man was definitely meant as a step in the right direction.

http://www.androidtapp.com/giant-boulder-of-death/

However it left the door open for a truly ugly world of gender mattering in a none human character design. Why on earth it would occur to an alligator to wear bows or more importantly a rock? Giant Boulder of Death (2013). Although this is almost certainly a joke in some cases due to its over use, many novelty games follow in the foot steps of having a character and then adding a Ms Male character e.g. Allie from Where's My Water: Allie's Story (2013) Toadette from Mario Kart: Double Dash!! (2013) and A prime example is the Koopa Kids again from Nintendo, this time from Super Mario Bros. Each Koopaling is very different and has something they are good at or interested in. What makes Wendy O Koopa special? Well she acts spoilt and bratty and has mood swings...

http://uk.ign.com/articles/2009/12/07/big-boss-of-the-day-the-koopa-kids

However there are some games which don't rely on cliche, create interesting plots, rounded characters and become part of pop culture in more than just a gaming format, introducing Lara Croft. For all the sex appeal and interesting anatomy there's one thing that matters with these games and that's the plot and game play. The most important thing for the most recent reboot was to take out the over sexy and create a mind blowing game both visually and with a plot and story that could reveal more about the character and make it fun.

http://www.gamechup.com/evolution-of-lara-crofts-model-first-game-to-the-reboot/

As you would expect it's been very successful and will even have Square Enix take it onto the new PS4 and Xbox One. Simply put I feel that it's clear more effort went into the recent game in keeping it exciting and engaging rather than looking at how it will all tie up and motivate you to play.

Often tropes are used to quickly put you in a situation you understand and empathise with, for App novelty games this may be necessary because it's such a narrow platform. Even so you have to consider the amount of attention we pay to playing puzzle games. Personally I think it's more than people realise. The truth is the mobile game market should understand there are two things people love, puzzle games and films, games like Catherine from Atlus (2011) combine these elements perfectly and have been a massive success.

Next let us move on to the other gender. How are male characters affected by tropes and what tropes are out there? Well yes but there just aren't as many, it seems the male video game character is more narrowly set than their female counterparts. For instance there's the over masculine man. Prime examples of the over masculine man are in Halo Reach (2010) and Dante's Inferno (2010). Or there is dark past man and sometimes you get young looking for something man.

http://lounge.moviecodec.com/vs-forum/dante-dmc-vs-dante-dantes-inferno-316216/

Honestly there are more but it's not as broad as women and normally these interchange too. Male characters may be frequent, they may be more likely to be the main guy, it's likely they won't be shown in a negative light; isn't that as bad? Surely by having every man have no weakness, show no fear, show no humanity or realism, that's just as bad. Moreover we don't pick up on it because we expect our men to save the day, we don't have many versions of dude in distress, we have no Mr. Female. This is because many characters just aren't made to fit in with reality. They are escapism, no one wants to escape into a world where they're a hero with issues or fragility.

http://www.bagogames.com/official-box-art-bioshock-infinite-booker-dewitt-front-center/

One case that possibly looks into this changing is BioShock Infinite by Irrational Games (2013). Booker DeWitt is an over strong male however in Burial at Sea he is killed and becomes a sort of conscience for the heroine Elizabeth. This is very different and gives the power over from the male character who was punching down walls strong man, to the more fragile victim. Personally given how it fits in with the plot and game play and how it changes how you view both characters, I feel it's a subtle change for the better.

http://www.technobuffalo.com/2014/03/17/the-last-of-us-has-sold-six-million-copies/

However full praise must go to the Last of Us by Naughty Dog (2013). The Last of Us is a game that pulls away from pure male strength and allows female help. Joel is often the one to save Ellie as they journey through a post apocalyptic world however many times Joel is put in terrible danger and Ellie comes over and saves him from his over heroism. There's a section where Joel's life is miraculously saved by Ellie and she looks after him, she struggles to help him and is alone, isolated and scared but Joel is human so when she's kidnapped she's hurt. Even though he eventually makes it in time it's an altogether more human approach to the situation and there's a heartbreaking sense of reality to Joel and Ellie which makes it such a breath taking game.

As a rule men are evenly affected by sexism in games, while there are less options when you're a bloke, you're limited to buff and invincible so it's not negative. However it's really bad for male self confidence as well as being unrealistic to what it actually is to be a man, while it's naff role modelling it's not as negative as being weak kneed and waiting for rescue.

On the other hand as women are starting to get new plots, become heroines more often, like Jodie from Naughty Dog's Beyond Two Souls (2013), and less and less being placed as props in mainstream games, there is a lot of changes that will come to their characters that may never touch upon men.

http://wall.alphacoders.com/by_sub_category.php?id=181121

At the moment male roles are often lead but is that really a good message for men? Given how we see gender bent mods for games like Zelda, where Link needs rescuing, are we fuelling the fire for strong women enough now and need to look into more in-depth male characters that have weak knees.

Looking back at games that have cult status or succeeded really well, I think it's obvious that we need more female roles and more passive men. Parasite Eve by Square, now Square Enix (1998), is an old game with a female protagonist and cult status. Looking further many gender optional games e.g. Pokemon Crystal by Game Freak (1994) or even Vampires Bloodlines: the masquerade by Troika Games (2004) also have cult status and are still played. These games have great representations for both genders as the game play doesn't change by changing gender. The ratio of loved and still played games with female leads to male isn't the same as the ratio released. If only around 10-15% of games have female leads I would imagine the game still played with female leads after 5 years would be more 50/50.

http://pokedream.com/games/crystal/preview.php

In all honesty I think that's the future for men and women characters; a solid plot, good representation for both genders and game play based endings. Mostly because the gender of a character shouldn't matter for the game, the personality shouldn't reflect on what gender is most appropriate, the gender should fit the player.

References

Coville (2014) The 6 Male Characters Women Never Get to See in Movies. [Online] Cracked. Available from: http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-6-male-characters-women-never-get-to-see-in-movies/ [Accessed 24/04/2014].

Lindsell (2014) Male Film Tropes You'll Never See. [Online] Huffington Post. Available from: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/jonathan-lindsell/male-film-tropes-youll-never-see_b_4817708.htm [Accessed 24/04/2014].

McIntosh (2014) Playing with privilege: the invisible benefits of gaming while male. [Online] Dictionary Reference. Available from: http://www.polygon.com/2014/4/23/5640678/playing-with-privilege-the-invisible-benefits-of-gaming-while-male [Accessed 24/04/2014]

Anita Sarkeesian. (2013). Damsel in Distress: Part 1 - Tropes vs Women in Video Games [Online Video]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6p5AZp7r_Q [24/04/2014].

Schedeen (2014) Big Boss of the Day: The Koopa Kids. [Online] IGN. Available from: http://uk.ign.com/articles/2009/12/07/big-boss-of-the-day-the-koopa-kids [Accessed 24/04/2014]